Christie Allen Tribute Onlinetributes.com.au

WA singer Christie Allen, one of the pop sensations of the Countdown era, has died after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Born in the UK in 1954, Allen went on to make a name for herself in her adopted homeland of Australia as a chart topping pop singer.

Allen was performing with her brothers in a band in Perth when she came to the attention of songwriter and record producer Terry Britten.

Britten, a former member of The Twilights who would go on to a hugely successful song writing career, was impressed by Allen's vocal ability and bubbly personality.

He began working with Christie and a recording contract with Michael Gudinski’s independent record label Mushroom Records resulted.

Mushroom Records made sure that their new pop artist got plenty of national radio support and television screen time on national iconic music television program; Countdown.

She had three top 20 singles in the Australian charts in 1979 and 1980 - Falling In Love, Goosebumps and He's My Number One - and followed up with a gold album, Magic Rhythm.

Goosebumps and He's My Number One were Mushroom's two highest selling singles at the time, and Allen was voted the most popular female singer at the Countdown Awards in 1979 and 1980.

Christie went on to release another album Detours and had a handful of singles in the early 1980s.  After a hiatus, she returned to the music scene in the 1990s and rose back up the charts

Allen resurrected her music career, singing with country music bands, before Gudinski sought her out via an appeal on national radio to perform at a concert for the 25th anniversary of Mushroom Records in 1998.

She retired following that performance, before a huge crowd at the MCG on November 14 that year.

Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in March this year, she lived out the remainder of her life in country WA.

 She is survived by her husband Mark, her daughter Christa Lea, granddaughter Ashlee and her as yet unborn granchild due in December as well as her brothers Keith, Steve and Mark.